Gaming and how I enjoy my corner of the worlds.

Work for a brewery in real life.

Something a little different today. This is going to be more of an inside look to me and why I collect. I hope to explain what drives me as hobbyist and let you get to know me more.

Like many people in this hobby of a certain age I started with Heroquest. I was around the 10 year old mark and I found the game at a car boot sale. I was instantly hooked by the idea of elves, orcs, dwarfs, heroes and high adventure. It also didn't take much to get friends hooked or find like minded people. I guess for me this was the golden age, playing into my teenage years I experienced 40k 2nd edition, blood bowl, necromunda, gorkamorka, space hulk. We use to play games almost every weekend and I remember fondly my Iron Warrior army and my Goliath gang. But then slowly real life gets in the way, we got jobs, we had bills to pay, our hangouts more involved painting and drinking than actually playing and then I moved away. Upon moving my gaming time really died, in a new town I didn't have a connection for gaming, nor did I really have the time. So I painted and converted and read stories always keeping a toe in the systems I loved.

Wally Squad Judge Jennings

Jump forward 20 years and I can properly count the number of games I've played on two hands. But I still love the systems (currently 40k and Warlord Games Judge Dredd). For me now it is not the playing that matters, it is the calming escape I now get from reading novels or comics, gluing a figure or even just getting a paint brush out. It is relaxing, it is fun and most importantly its all mine. I feel I have reached a point were everything needs a story. It is no longer just a Pirate model sitting on a shelf, it is in fact Wally Squad Judge Jennings working undercover in the local bar of Sector 102. It is all a part of my own evolving stories that I use to entertain myself and escape for a while. Made more possible by my renewed reading of 2000 AD lines of comics and novels, which I blog about here. It is also the same for 40k, I don't just collect Aeldari of Iyanden but in fact collect the House of Ulthanash. Every squad has a story or background, the leaders have ships that are named, I have a list of models I wish to build that can never be used in a game but will show background of the army. I have moved pasted the dice rolling and more into the story telling, I guess it's almost like rpg world building and I love it.

As my children grow and start showing interest in my "toys" I tell them the stories I've come up with, sparking their imagination with my stories based of these bits of metal and plastic. With hopes one day they will join me in my hobby and when/if they do I want them to expand upon what I have created so far and start their own adventures.

So what about you lot who have read this, why do you hobby? Is it the painting, the gaming, the lore, the world building? What excites you? I would love to hear about it. Drop a comment below and let's get chatting.